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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27901198">a string of pearls</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/choose_joy/pseuds/choose_joy'>choose_joy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Julie and Julia AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, loosely</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:42:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>587</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27901198</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/choose_joy/pseuds/choose_joy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>zolf needs a change of pace. cooking his way through harrison campbell's cookbook is the perfect solution.</p><p>(or: the loosest julie &amp; julia au that will ever exist)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a string of pearls</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Right, well, I’ve never been good at sticking to New Year’s resolutions, but this one feels like something I can handle. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Zolf types out, fingers lingering over the sticky keys of his slightly-too-old laptop. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m not saying it’s an important one, but it's interesting, and that’s more than a lot of you can say. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, right. My name is Zolf, and this year, I’m going to be cooking my way through Harrison Campbell’s cookbook.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>~~~</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The ideas came to him (well, came to Feryn) late on Christmas Eve, while he was setting the chicken to brine in his refrigerator. Feryn’s curled up on the couch with Figgis (the fuzzy little traitor), snacking on a little tray of cheese and olives that Zolf had set out earlier in the evening, and it's honestly the most peaceful evening they’ve had in a long time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Which is, of course, why it startles Zolf when Feryn asks him why he’s so miserable.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m-- what? I’m not miserable?” Zolf responds, once he’s gotten over the initial shock, “What makes you say that?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Come off it, Zolf,” Feryn responds, “You’ve sighed at least 4 times in the last hour, and I know for a fact that brining a chicken is not that exhausting. So what’s up?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Huh</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Zolf thinks. And then he thinks some more. Sure, his job is kind of tedious-- if you’d asked him a few years ago if he thought he’d be stuck in a dead-end retail job, no hope of even making assistant manager (though he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>asked, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and he’d be well good at it), he’d have laughed in your face. And sure, maybe he’s let some friendships fall to the wayside, and maybe he hasn’t been out of the house in a while, but it doesn’t mean he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>miserable. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Does it?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The more he thinks about it, the more unsure he becomes. Maybe he’s not miserable, but he’s definitely stuck, if nothing else. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He says as much to Feryn, who looks at him with something he can’t quite place-- sadness, almost, but not quite. “Listen,” he says, “maybe it's time to do something nice for yourself, huh?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Zolf scoffs. “Like what, Feryn?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know, taking a class?” Feryn suggests, scowling when Zolf shoots a dirty look at him. “What about joining a book club?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right, with all my regular free time!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Feryn throws up his hands, exasperated, jostling Figgis from her place on his lap. “You’re always going on about that one book, the Harry Campbell one!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Harrison</span>
  </em>
  <span> Campbell,” Zolf replies, “and that’s a cookbook, Feryn.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Perfect! What if you... what if you cooked your way through it?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And that actually gives Zolf a bit of pause. “Huh.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“See? You could cook your way through the recipes, and like, blog about it or something!” and now Feryn’s getting excited, gesticulating wildly now that the cat has moved to the armchair.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What, like a mommy blogger?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, listen, this could actually be really cool! You could be famous: ‘The Man Who Conquered Campbell’!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Zolf snickers. “Sure, that’ll give the right impression.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, come off it,” Feryn snarks, throwing a pillow at his brother, “just... think about it, okay?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, okay, I’ll think about it,” replies Zolf, and that’s the end of that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>~~~</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Fast forward a couple weeks, and sure, maybe Zolf is a little tipsier than he’d planned on being, but Feryn was right. He might not be </span>
  <em>
    <span>miserable, </span>
  </em>
  <span>but he’s certainly not </span>
  <em>
    <span>happy, </span>
  </em>
  <span>so he doesn’t think twice when he hits “post”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-------------------------------------------------</span>
</p><p><span>Posts: 1     Site visits: 1</span>      <span>Comments: 0</span></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i'll be honest, i have no clue how long this is going to be, but the idea of zolf cooking his way through a cookbook was such a good image i couldn't resist. (title taken from the julie and julia soundtrack!)</p><p>i'm @choose__joy on twitter and thisisadingdongblog on tumblr!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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